Beltre gets gift after Dominican elimination from WBC

Adrian Beltre arrived at his locker Wednesday morning to discover someone had beaten him to it.

Attached to the locker were the words ”Who’s on vacation today?”

The note was a gift from outfielder Wladimir Balentien, after the The Netherlands, of which his native Curacao is a part, eliminated Beltre’s Dominican Republic team from the World Baseball Classic Tuesday night.

Beltre could have lived without that, but he’d expected something of the sort. And he would have given as good himself if the Dominicans had won.

The Mariner third baseman wanted nothing more this spring than to play for the Dominican team, as he had in the first WBC back in 2006. But as he was coming off left shoulder and left thumb surgery, the Mariners prevailed on him not to risk playing.

”It was the right thing to do,” Beltre said, sounding not entirely convinced. ”And it would have been worse if we’d lost and I was there.

”I’m disappointed because I’m proud of my country. I’d like to think it would have been different if I was there, but you never know.”